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Join the Museum’s annual celebration of Earth Day with Spaceship Earth on Thursday, April 19. This Hayden Planetarium program takes viewers across the planet’s verdant hills and blue oceans and into space to view Earth as only astronauts have seen it. Director of Astrovisualization Carter Emmart will guide the tour using the Museum’s Digital Universe Atlas, an authentic 3D map of the cosmos that uses satellite data as recent as three hours old to digitally reconstruct the universe. Emmart recently answered a few questions about the experience.

Why is it important to take a look at Earth’s place in the universe?

Carter Emmart: Earth Day was a direct result of the first images acquired by astronauts viewing our home from the humbling distance of the Moon. One planet, ours, in space, alive with life and color, covered mostly by water and a dynamic atmosphere with constantly shifting clouds, and all this seen from our national goal of reaching the Moon, our nearest neighbor, lifeless, without color or water, and without atmosphere. Regardless of how fascinating the rest of the planets, moons, and asteroids are, ours is paradise. We are part of this world, and our survival goes hand in hand with it. We respond to its beauty as we respond to any beautiful landscape filled with color, form, and the dynamics of nature. Our Earth Day celebration is a moment to sit back and revere our planet and our existence.

From Darwin’s finches to the Dodo, island birds have inspired groundbreaking scientific theories. The genomic revolution and increased access to islands are now enabling a new age of island exploration by researchers.

Space dust and asteroid fragments reach Earth’s surface every day, but only rarely do extraterrestrial objects cause serious harm. Scientists use increasingly precise technology to track near-Earth objects and gauge if a Cretaceous-style collision could be on the horizon. At the forefront of this research is MIT professor Richard Binzel, whose Museum lecture Asteroids: Friends or Foes? on Monday, April 16, evaluates the threat of asteroids and makes a case for how they might actually be useful to humans. Binzel recently answered a few questions about his research.

Months before the opening of Creatures of Lighton March 31, a team of preparators at the Museum began developing custom models of glowing organisms that light up the exhibition. Director of Exhibition Design Michael Meister and other members of the Exhibition Department share how they conduct visual research for these unique models, work with curators to make them scientifically accurate, and meet the various lighting challenges of creating an exhibition about bioluminescence.

Today’s re-release of James Cameron’s blockbuster film Titanic in 3D will feature just one altered shot: a corrected view of the stars in the early hours of April 15, 1912, the day the “unsinkable” British ocean liner went down in the Atlantic Ocean.

The adjustment was made in response to feedback that Cameron, who is known for his meticulous attention to detail, received from Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson, who noticed an inaccuracy in the film after it was first released in 1997.